Tag Archives: search queries
How Search Works [video] by Googles Matt Cutts
Google buys Metaweb to ‘improve’ search – Telegraph
Google has acquired Metaweb, an internet information database company, in a bid to “improve its search” offering.
Google is on an acquisition spree having bought Metaweb and ITA, a flight information software company, during the last two weeks. Photo: AFPThe search giant announced its acquisition late on Friday evening (July 16) via its company blog. Jack Menzel, director of product management at Google, wrote: “We’ve acquired Metaweb, a company that maintains an open database of things in the world. Working together we want to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone.
“With efforts like ‘rich snippets’ and the ‘search answers feature’, we’re just beginning to apply our understanding of the web to make search better. Type [Barack Obama birthday] in the search box and see the answer right at the top of the page. Or search for [events in San Jose] and see a list of specific events and dates. We can offer this kind of experience because we understand facts about real people and real events out in the world.
“But what about [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000] or [actors over 40 who have won at least one Oscar]? These are hard questions, and we’ve acquired Metaweb because we believe working together we’ll be able to provide better answers.”
Metaweb had raised $15 million in funding in 2006, followed by another $42.5 million in 2008. At the time, too, the company garnered significant publicity and although it had subsequently become less prominent, industry sources indicate that Google has paid more than has been invested in the company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed
It has also been suggested that the move by the search giant, to bolster its core search operation, demonstrates that it is beginning to look at ways of augmenting the algorithmic methods it currently uses to provide search results.
Menzel added: “In addition to our ideas for search, we’re also excited about the possibilities for Freebase, Metaweb’s free and open database of over 12 million things, including movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations, companies and more.
“Google and Metaweb plan to maintain Freebase as a free and open database for the world. Better yet, we plan to contribute to and further develop Freebase and would be delighted if other web companies use and contribute to the data. We believe that by improving Freebase, it will be a tremendous resource to make the web richer for everyone. And to the extent the web becomes a better place, this is good for webmasters and good for users.”
Google is on something of an acquisition spree, having recently announced the $700 million cash acquisition of ITA, a flight information software company, in a bid to enter the lucrative digital travel market.
The search giant is hoping that the cash acquisition, the fourth largest in its history, will allow it to create bespoke search tools focused on travel. ITA, which has been in existence for 14 years, aggregates and organises information it gathers from travel agents and airlines, including flight times, ticket prices and availability.
However, the deal needs approval by the US competition authorities, as the acquisition would bring together the world’s largest search engine with one of the biggest pieces of travel search software.
via telegraph.co.uk
Google share of searches at 72 percent for May 2010 (in USA)
Google share of searches at 72 percent for May 2010
New York, N.Y., June 21, 2010 – Experian® Hitwise® announced today that Google accounted for 72.17 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending May 29, 2010. Yahoo! Search, Bing and Ask received 14.43 percent, 9.23 percent and 2.14 percent, respectively. The remaining 74 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 2.03 percent of U.S. searches.
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Percentage of U.S. searches among leading search engine providers
Domain April 2010
May 2010
Month-over-month percentage change
71.40%
72.17%
1%
search.yahoo.com
14.96%
14.43%
-3%
9.43%
9.23%
-2%
2.18%
2.14%
-2%
Note: Data is based on four-week rolling periods (ending May 1, 2010, and May 29, 2010) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Figures are for Web searches only.
*This includes executed searches on Bing.com but does not include searches on Club.Live.com.Source: Experian Hitwise
Google is greatest source of traffic to key U.S. industries; Bing sees continued growth to verticals
Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing April 2010 with May 2010, Automotive, Business and Finance, Entertainment, News and Media, Shopping and Social Networking categories showed double-digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.Among the top three search engines, Google delivered the most visits to the four categories below year over year. Google’s percentage of upstream traffic grew for the Automotive, Shopping and Travel categories. Yahoo! Search saw gains in the Automotive and Shopping categories. Bing saw triple-digit growth in two categories – Health and Shopping – including a 107 percent increase in the Health category.
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Percentage of U.S. upstream traffic from search engines among verticals
Yahoo! Search
Bing**
Domain
May 2009
May 2010
Year-over-year percentage change
May 2009
May 2010
Year-over-year percentage change
May 2009
May 2010
Year-over-year percentage change
Automotive
20.73%
22.70%
10%
4.20%
4.73%
13%
1.51%
2.96%
96%
Health
34.38%
31.64%
-8%
5.99%
4.94%
-18%
1.98%
4.10%
107%
Shopping
17.76%
20.06%
13%
3.64%
3.99%
10%
1.29%
2.66%
106%
Travel
28.66%
30.34%
6%
4.96%
4.46%
-10%
1.91%
3.12%
63%
Note: Data is based on monthly upstream traffic from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Figures are for Web searches only.
**This includes executed searches on Bing.com, Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com.
Source: Experian Hitwise
Shift to two- and three-word queries
Shorter search queries – those averaging one to four words long – were flat from April 2010 to May 2010. Two-word searches comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 23.34 percent of all queries, and increased 1 percent in May 2010. Three-word searches also increased 1 percent. Longer search queries, averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length, declined 2 percent between April 2010 and May 2010.Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Percentage of U.S. clicks by number of keywords
Subject
April 2010
May 2010
Month-over-month percentage change
One word
22.77%
22.46%
-1%
Two words
23.06%
23.34%
1%
Three words
20.31%
20.51%
1%
Four words
14.23%
14.24%
0%
Five words
8.55%
8.53%
0%
Six words
4.71%
4.66%
-1%
Seven words
2.60%
2.56%
-2%
Eight or more words
3.78%
3.70%
-2%
Note: Data is based on four-week rolling periods (ending May 1, 2010, and May 29, 2010) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.
Source: Experian Hitwise
About Experian Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million Web sites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.
For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Research Blog and Hitwise Data Center.
About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing Services delivers best-in-breed data, analytics and platforms into multiple regions around the globe. It is focused on helping marketers more effectively target and engage their best customers through email, digital advertising, customer data management, customer and competitive insight, data enrichment and list rental, modeling and analytics, and strategic consulting. Through these capabilities, Experian Marketing Services enables organizations to encourage brand advocacy, create measurable return on investment and significantly improve the lifetime value of their customers.About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 65 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft.Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2009, was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil.
For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.
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via hitwise.com